Anger + Hatred= Vengeance

This morning I had the privilege of preaching at our church. I want to share this with you guys.

Men can do such great things. Men can also do such great evil things. The story of this fourteen-year old boy changed the way I feel about anger and hatred.

Emmett Louis "Bobo" Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was a fourteen-year-old African American from Chicago, Illinois. He was naturally a mischievous boy (having been fourteen once, I can relate). One summer he went down to Mississippi to visit his grandfather. That was the last time his mother would see Emmett alive.

Emmett had fun hanging out with his cousins. After a day's work at the cotton field they would all go to the local store in Money, Mississippi and buy themselves a treat. One day, after a long day at the cotton field, Emmett and his cousins were outside the Bryant store when Mrs. Bryant (the wife of Roy Bryant), walked outside of the store. Emmett whistled at her. During the Jim Crow era, a colored person is not allowed to whistle at a white man or woman. Knowing they were in trouble, Emmett and his cousins fled to safety.

A few days later, Roy Bryant, JW Milam and some other men forcefully entered the house of Emmett's cousins and abducted him. They told his family that they were just going to beat him up and teach him a lesson. Three days later his body was found with a 75-pound cotton gin fan tied to his neck with a barbed wire. His body was badly mutilated. His eyes were gouged. His nose bridge looked like someone took a meat chopper and chopped it off. His right ear was gone. His tongue was pulled out and was hanging on his chin. His skull was separated and there was a bullet hole that went through his temple. 

After Till's disfigured body was found, he was placed inside a pine box and nearly buried, but his mother, Mamie Till Bradley, wanted the body to come back to Chicago. A Tutwiler mortuary assistant worked all night to prepare the body as best as he could so that Mrs. Bradley could bring Emmett's body back to Chicago.

The Chicago funeral home had agreed not to open the casket, but Mrs. Bradley fought their decision. The state of Mississippi insisted it would not allow the funeral home to open it, so Mrs. Bradley threatened to open it herself, insisting she had the right to see her son. After viewing the body, she also insisted on leaving the casket open for the funeral and allowing people to take photographs because she wanted people to see how badly Till's body had been disfigured—she has famously been quoted as saying, "I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby."

Racism, bigotry, racial discrimination... all these things are a by-product of HATE. The Bible says:

"Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. 

1 John 3:15

"If anyone says, "I love God", yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." 1 John 4:20

Anger is what we feel when someone injures us. Given a threat or injury (emotional or physical), our body pours adrenaline into the bloodstream, and we get ready to fight or flee. Hatred is the product of anger when we let it sit and simmer in our hearts. Vengeance is the action we take as a result of hate.

We oftentimes let hatred simmer in our hearts and desire vengeance when someone hurts us and we don't get justice from it. We do not have to murder the person to have our actions be labelled as murder. It can be gossip, backstabbing, character assassination, etc.

God said in Leviticus 19:17-18 " 'Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt. 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD."

So why did God end his statement with "I AM THE LORD"? He wants to tell us that He is serious about this commandment. He wants us to know that we do not have a say in this, no argument can show God otherwise. We can't whine to God and say "But Lord this person really hurt me deep!" Remember the beating and death Jesus suffered because of you and me. The Lord your God commands you. Plain and simple.

The most loving thing you can do for others is to obey everything God tells you to do about loving Him with all you are and loving others as yourself.

“As I have loved you, that you also love one another.” John 19:18